Teriyaki Buffalo Wings

Roll up your sleeves and dive into these sweet, spicy, tangy, and sticky Teriyaki Buffalo Wings that combine two classic flavors for wings in one perfect bite. With crispy skin kissed by fire enrobed in a bold and glistening sauce, these wings will be your new Sunday football favorite.

There’s no need to decide between buffalo wings and teriyaki wings with this mashup of flavors. The best of both worlds come together harmoniously in a sauce that gives you the sweet umami of teriyaki with that crave worthy bright heat of buffalo sauce. Just add the chunky blue cheese for the ultimate combination.

This recipe is fully inspired by one of my favorite places in all of Florida. I grew up vacationing in Sanibel/Captiva most summers. It wasn’t unusual for us to make multiple stops at The Lazy Flamingo on Santiva for lunch during each stay. The order was usually the same, a steamer bucket of oysters that I had fun shucking, their dead parrot wings which were Dante’s Inferno fiery, and their teri-hot wings that were that perfect combination of teriyaki sauce and buffalo sauce. That original location didn’t survive Hurricane Ian, but the memories of getting messy with sticky wings after a day of fishing and seeking out the perfect shell will always live on.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy Process – There’s nothing complicated about this grilled chicken wing recipe. The wings are simply seasoned and grilled till crispy before being sauced, and the sauce itself just requires a quick simmer to dissolve the sugar and honey.
• Texture – Is there anything better than that irresistible crispy skin of perfectly cooked chicken wings? This method for grilled buffalo wings gives you that without the mess and fuss of frying.
• Balance of Flavors – These wings are spicy but mellowed by the sweetness of the teriyaki. You can also control the amount of heat by either using regular honey or adding a little more butter to soften the kick.
• Accessible Ingredients – You can easily find all of the ingredients for these buffa-yaki wings in the grocery store. It combines pantry staples like soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice wine vinegar with the buffalo wing classic hot sauce.

Ingredients

• Chicken Wings – You can use either already split party wings, or whole wings. Just remove the tips and separate the flats from the drums for easy and even grilling.
• Homemade Rub – These sweet buffalo wings use a basic salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika rub with the aromatic addition of ground ginger and coriander. A pinch of cayenne brings a little heat.
• Sauce – Less sodium soy sauce, mirin, and rice wine vinegar are combined with hot honey and brown sugar to create the sweet and savory teriyaki portion of this sauce with fresh ginger and garlic giving depth. Frank’s hot sauce and butter delivers on the classic buffalo wing flavor.

How to Make Teriyaki Buffalo Wings

• Prepare your wings. If you’re using whole wings for these hot teriyaki wings, remove the tip and separate the drums from the flats. Toss them with the oil. Mix together your seasoning mixture and sprinkle both sides with the spice mix. This step can be done in advance.
• Make your sauce. Add the soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, honey, sugar, garlic, and ginger to a small saucepan on medium heat. Allow it to cool until the honey and sugar has dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the hot sauce. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in a cube of cold butter a tablespoon at a time until dissolved. This can be made a few hours in advance.
• Heat up your grill. Prepare your grill for two zone cooking. If using a kettle grill position your charcoal in the center of the grill leaving the outer area as the cooler zone. For other types of charcoal grills bank your charcoal to one side. You want your grill around 400 degrees. Add wood chips to your charcoal for additional flavor if desired.

• Grill your wings. Place your wings on the cooler side, or outer portion of a kettle style grill. Close the lid and allow them to grill undisturbed for 25-30 minutes.
• Flip your wings. The skin should start to look a little dry, crispy, and bubbly at this point. Give the wings a flip and allow them to grill another 15-20 minutes, or until they’re internal temperature is between 165-170 degrees.

• Sauce it up. Toss your wings into the sauce. Place them back on the grill and let them grill for 5 minutes. Repeat this process a couple of times until you have built up several layers of the sauce and their internal temperature is around 185 degrees.
• Garnish and serve. Drizzle over a little extra sauce if desired and garnish your wings with chopped green onions for a pop of color and freshness.

Equipment

• Grill – This recipe for teriyaki hot wings is for grilled wings. Any type of grill will work but a charcoal grill will give you the most flavor. The classic kettle grill makes it easy to evenly cook these wings indirect.
• Grill Safe Saucepan – If you want to make the sauce early and warm it up, make sure that you use a grill safe pan such as cast iron.

Variations

• To make these wings a little less spicy, replace the hot honey with regular honey.
• You can replace the soy sauce with either low sodium tamari or gluten free soy sauce.

Tips From the Beach

• Don’t skip the step of tossing your wings in oil. This helps their skin get extra crispy on the grill.
• While the step of adding cold butter to the sauce off the heat isn’t necessary, it helps the butter emulsify into the sauce creating a smooth sauce that isn’t broken. You can store it this way in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.
• If you want to tone the heat down a little, add extra butter to the sauce. This will mellow it out.
• Feel free to use your favorite rub for these wings but stick with something that isn’t overly salty because of the salt content of the soy sauce and hot sauce.
• Make sure that you’re using the hot sauce, and not buffalo sauce. Keep in mind that you’ll be adding butter to this recipe.

Looking for more wing recipes? Make sure to check out Beer Brined Buffalo Wings and Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings. And for more game day eats check out pizza jalapeno poppers.

Teriyaki Buffalo Wings

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Roll up your sleeves and dive into these sweet, spicy, tangy, and sticky Teriyaki Buffalo Wings that combine two classic favorite flavors for wings. 

• Author: Nicole Stover
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 75
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: Entree
• Method: Grilling
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

Chicken Wings

• 2 pounds chicken wings, tips remove, flats and drums separated
• 1 1/2 tablespoons neutral oil such as avocado or canola
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Teriyaki Buffalo Sauce

• 1/2 cup less sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons hot honey
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
• 1/2 cup Frank’s hot sauce
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
• Sliced green onions for garnish if desired

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Instructions

Teriyaki Buffalo Wings

1. Add your salt, pepper, cayenne, coriander, paprika, garlic powder, and ginger to a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Add the wings to a baking sheet and drizzle the oil over them. Toss to completely coat.
3. Evenly sprinkle the spice mixture over both sides of the wings.
4. Prepare your grill for two-zone cooking. Bank your charcoal to one side of the grill. For a kettle style grill position your charcoal in the center of the grill leaving the outer perimeter as the cooler zone. Make sure that your grates are clean and hot. Allow your grill to heat to about 400 degrees. Sprinkle wood chips over your charcoal if desired.
5. Place the seasoned wings on the cooler side. Close the grill and allow the wings to grill for 25-30 minutes.
6. Flip your wings, They should start to be getting dry, crispy, with the skin beginning to bubble. Allow them to grill for another 15-20 minutes or until they reach 165 degrees. 
7. Toss your wings in the sauce. Place the wings back on the grill and let them cook for 5-10 minutes. Repeat this step until the wings have reached 185 degrees and you have built up several layers of sauce.
8. Drizzle extra sauce over the wings before serving if desired. Garnish with green onions.

Teriyaki Buffalo Sauce

1. Add the soy sauce, mirin, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, garlic, and ginger to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the honey and brown sugar have dissolved.
2. Stir in the hot sauce and allow it to warm through. 
3. Remove from the heat. Stir in cold butter one tablespoon at a time until completely combined. 

Notes

1. You can mellow the heat of this recipe by using regular honey and also adding more butter.